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The New York Post is the latest newspaper to cross the iPad barrier, with a new, full-content tablet edition readers will be able to purchase as a monthly or annual subscription. Why is this interesting? Because the Post is, to my knowledge, the first periodical without a paid website that Apple is allowing to sell app subscriptions.

The newspapers that now have paid subscription apps, namely The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, both charge for full online access. That's the reason they've been allowed to sell subscriptions through their apps when other publishers, like Time Inc., have been denied that privilege while Apple develops its digital newsstand. What Apple has told publishers, according to sources that have been involved in those discussions, is that only those who had a "preexisting digital business" would be allowed to sell app-based subscriptions. That means the Journal the FT as well as Amazon and Zinio, a vendor that helps publishers sell digital editions. Other publishers that wanted to give consumers a subscription option have had to find workarounds, like Time Inc., which wrangled permission to give People away "free" to print subscribers; Sporting News, which sells its app edition through Zinio; and The Atlantic, which will be selling a not-quite-subscription to its premium app with the help of a company called Urban Airship.

None of that for the Post. After an initial $1.99 to download the app,the subscription is an in-app purchase, the holy grail for publishers. The rate is $6.99 for a month, $39.99 for six months and $74.99 for a year.